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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Joe Carter: "Unplugging the Info-Tech God"

After somewhat of an unintended hiatus from blogging, tweeting, and barely showing signs of life on facebook, I had to chuckle at this piece written by Joe Carter over at First Things. I can truly relate to this. I just hadn't been home much the last two weeks, and when I was, it was to get some important things done and off to bed.

People often ask me how I have time for my online activities. I looked around my house recently and thought to myself that it appears as if I hadn't picked up the place in two weeks. Then I realized, it has been two weeks since I picked up the place. With the holiday weekend, I'll be spending some time.... mostly at home if I can help it... working.

I give you just the beginning of Joes piece. Even if you don't write blogposts, I'm sure many of you will relate to what he writes, as well.

I never find the time to be alone with God during the week, so I’ve dedicated this Sunday afternoon to prayer. But before I do I should check my e-mail so I won’t be distracted. It won’t take long before. . . Thirty-two new messages, including one from the boss? I better reply right now. They might be important.

Some invitations from Facebook. Those are easy to clear out so let me accept them and I’m . . . hmm, I didn’t realize I had more notifications. Looks like Stacy finally launched a blog; I’ll just click through really quickly to check it out. Some great stuff. I really should add her blog to my RSS reader before I forget. What, “More than 100+ items”? Didn’t I just check this yesterday? I should really whittle these down a bit before it gets worse.

Wow, here I was about to focus on prayer and Bible study and my favorite theology-blogger has an excellent post on spiritual disciples. I have to share that with my own blog readers. That’s a topic that’s really on my heart today, and it won’t take long.

Hmm, looks like some comments are hung up in our spam filter again. Better fix that, or people will be discouraged from commenting. Oh man, does this guy misrepresent what I wrote. I can’t let that go unchallenged. Readers might be led astray. It won’t take long.

OK, now I need to buckle down and pray. Let me check the time on my iPhone—no way, it’s been four hours?—and who are these voicemails from?

I better check them in case my boss is calling to see why I didn’t answer that email, which would be really rude of him since this is Sunday, and I told everyone that I now devote Sunday to church and prayer and Bible Study and—no, not him, it’s my buddy asking if I got his e-mail. All right, that’s it. I really need to spend some quality time with the Lord.

But before I get started I should check my e-mail. It’s been four hours . . .

As an aside, I actually have some unfinished posts in draft. However, I cannot let the house go for another week, so ... it's time to pick it up and do some cleaning this weekend. Besides, readership always drops significantly on holiday weekends. I may drop a post if I need a break from working. But, hey! That five minutes could stretch to.... 4 hours.

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron

St. John of the Cross

Dark Night of the Soul (2.2:3)...

"...the devil causes many to believe in vain visionsand false prophecies; and strives to make them presumethat God and the saints are speaking with them; and they often trust their own fancy. And the devil is also accustomed, in this state, to fill them with presumption and pride, so that they become attracted by vanity and arrogance, and allow themselves to be seen engaging in outward acts which appear holy, such as raptures and other manifestations. Thus they become bold with God, and lose holy fear, which is the key and the custodian of all the virtues; and in some of these souls so many are the falsehoods and deceits which tend to multiply, and so inveterate do they grow, that it is very doubtful if such souls will return to the pure road of virtue and true spirituality."